CAPTAIN JUSTIN MILLER:
I was in college, September 11th happened, and I-- I guess, in a sense, felt a calling.

CAPTAIN JUSTIN MILLER:
First four years in the military I spent as a paratrooper. I was with the 173rd Airborne and did two deployments with them.

CAPTAIN JUSTIN MILLER:
So my responsibilities here, I'm responsible for, server management, server configuration-- ensuring the network secure, and we're keepin' people out that don't need to be on the network.

CAPTAIN JUSTIN MILLER:
This unite I would say the premier signal battalion in the United States Army. So we can deploy-- in counterinsurgency operations across the world-- We can deploy in homeland defense missions.

CAPTAIN JUSTIN MILLER:
What I do is important because and we are out there testing-- the newest communities equipment for the United States Army and determining how the Army will communicate for-- generations to come, in essence.

CHRIS HERBERT:
I'm Chris Herbert. I'm a founder of Phone Halo.
We make software that helps you keep track of your stuff I-- was always into computers growing up-- Then I went into-- UC Santa Barbara as an electrical engineer thinking about oh-- maybe start a business. What would we do? I lose and misplace things all the time. All my friends did "That's it. That's the problem we all have." We all lose and misplace thing, every day brings a new challenge whether it's an engineering challenge, something where the product goes wrong that we need to fix and jump on. And when you can come in and provide solutions, that's a great feeling.

CAPTAIN JUSTIN MILLER:
Welcome to Fort Bliss.

CHRIS HERBERT:
Great to be here.

CAPTAIN JUSTIN MILLER:
I'm Justin.

CHRIS HERBERT:
I'm Chris, nice to meet you.

CAPTAIN JUSTIN MILLER:
Good to meet you. This is the home of the 86th Signal Battalion. This is where all of our day to day activities take place.

CHRIS HERBERT:
When I first showed up at the base really-- expected a lot smaller, morning rugged-- base. This is like a city.

CAPTAIN JUSTIN MILLER:
So this is what we affectionately refer to as SkyNet.

CHRIS HERBERT:
While I was at Fort Bliss, I got to see a lot of really cool equipment.

CAPTAIN JUSTIN MILLER:
So these-- these right here are our server stacks they allow all the users to authenticate into the network.

CHRIS HERBERT:
You'd be deploying into the field? Or--

CAPTAIN JUSTIN MILLER:
Sure, I mean--

CHRIS HERBERT:
--I mean, it's remote?

CAPTAIN JUSTIN MILLER:
That's a great question. These things are incredibly portable.

CHRIS HERBERT:
Also amazing with the server boxes, around the world, and have internet in the most remote places.

CAPTAIN JUSTIN MILLER:
When we get on ground, we-- it It's plug and play. They're ready to go.

CHRIS HERBERT:
In a few hours, you can have an entire team set up with a network anywhere in the world?

CAPTAIN JUSTIN MILLER:
Definitely. So this is a satellite transport terminal, or S.T.T. We can take this to the middle of nowhere in Afghanistan, set it up, and pull a signal. And it's gonna provide data and voice communications for our war fighter.

CHRIS HERBERT:
So it's communicating with a satellite or--

CAPTAIN JUSTIN MILLER:
It is. It is.

CHRIS HERBERT:
Being able to interact with normal equipment that would cost millions of dollars, use that on a daily basis I think is something you would never get in the civilian world.

CHRIS HERBERT:
But from the middle of Afghanistan, you can access the consumer
internet, like search engines, social networks, everything?

CAPTAIN JUSTIN MILLER:
Yeah, yeah, all that, all that and more.

CHRIS HERBERT:
Hi, Captain. Good to see you again.

CAPTAIN JUSTIN MILLER:
Good to see you.

CHRIS HERBERT:
Phone Halo makes an app that helps you keep track of your stuff.
We were founded in 2009. We've grown steadily to around-- nine employees total.

CAPTAIN JUSTIN MILLER:
What I expected when I came out here to meet Chris was-- you know, Silicon Valley VIP passes to the clubs in Hollywood. in fact, these-- these are a bunch of just regular pieces saw a lot of similarities in what I do and what they do.

CAPTAIN JUSTIN MILLER:
So Chris, how am I gonna use this device to find my luggage?

CHRIS HERBERT:
So I should Captain Miller a lot of the products and-- that we're working on, And show him the new technology that we're going to be releasing soon called Bluetooth low energy.

CAPTAIN JUSTIN MILLER:
So now that it's in here, , and I'm gonna stash it somewhere and
not tell you where it's at. I think that's the prime thing you
learn in any engineering discipline is how to solve problems.
I see him definitely applying that in what he's doing. You have
to. And I can use that same methodology to solve problems in my
own line of work as well.

CAPTAIN JUSTIN MILLER:
I think it's a really neat product.
I think it's a really neat product. I mean, I sort of hope Chris, you know, slips me one before I get outta here.

CHRIS HERBERT:
I think that once you serve in the military (MOTOR) and go out into the civilian world, I think you have a lot of the team-building skills that a lotta people just don't have.

CAPTAIN JUSTIN MILLER:
I definitely think my background with the United States army and as a signal officer has prepared me-- more than enough for something like this.

CAPTAIN JUSTIN MILLER:
The skills that I've gotten-- translate over the leadership, the problem solving, taking care of your team-- all that-- you know, is-- is gonna come through and help me succeed.